


Fireflies

by TeamJaqar



Category: Ackley Bridge (TV)
Genre: Lord of the Flies AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-12 01:13:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15328470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamJaqar/pseuds/TeamJaqar
Summary: “...as the virus spreads across the north of England. Estimates in some areas are as high as 90% of citizens infected and killed within the last 24 hours. The early symptoms of the virus include a rash - most commonly beginning on the arms and chest - and a sore throat, a headache and vomiting. Everyone who remains uninfected should stay in a safe place and should not attempt to go outside until medical experts are able to determine the length of time the virus remains active.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based loosely off the book, and heavily off a dance-based production set in a school during an outbreak, so I take no credit for the original ideas!

_ There’s a fire, and screaming from somewhere beyond it. The smell of smoke hits him hard as he tries to run towards the voice, but it’s as if he’s stuck in slow motion, getting nowhere fast. He feels hands on his shoulders, his arms, his legs, pulling him back into the darkness as the smoke fills his lungs, choking him… _

Cory doesn’t have nightmares often, but lately it’s been the same one every time. Someone needs his help, but he’s being held back and can’t get to them. He struggles and fights against the hands restraining him, but they’re too strong. The air is suffocating and the sense of hopelessness grows with every second that passes. 

He doesn’t understand what it means, if anything, but it plays on his mind for a while each time. He wonders if perhaps he’s supposed to try and figure it out somehow, but he doesn’t really know where to begin, so he pushes it to the back of his mind until it shows itself again.

This occasion is no different. He wakes from the dream with a start at the sound of coughing from the next room. The one upside to keeping out of his dad’s way is that he’s yet to catch the cold from him which, given the viciousness of the cough, is definitely a good thing. With any luck, he can leave early enough for school and stay late enough for rugby practice that he might avoid catching it altogether. 

After a shower and a breakfast of slightly-burnt toast, Cory dashes out the front door just in time to miss his dad coming downstairs. He shivers as the chilly February air hits him and wishes just for a moment that he had a proper winter coat. He isn’t the type to be envious very often, but right now he can’t help feeling a twinge of envy towards Riz’s coat, the white one with the huge fur collar.

He catches sight of said fur collar about fifty metres from the school entrance and speeds up a little to greet Riz and Naveed.

“Morning!” Naveed calls out to him as he approaches, far too chirpy for both the weather and the time of day. If it was anyone else, Cory would point out that fact, but he just doesn’t have it in him to bring Naveed down. Besides, his smile does rather improve the mood somewhat.

When they get to registration, Neil is already there, looking like death warmed up. They all make a big show of sitting on the other side of the classroom in case they catch whatever plague he’s suffering from, a decision which seems even more prudent when he has a coughing fit that sounds genuinely painful. When the register reveals four students off sick, Neil attempts to make his case as just another victim of flu brought in by someone else, but as Riz quite rightly puts it, Neil’s the one here now, coughing all over them. The teacher agrees and sends him to the nurse to be sent home.

“My auntie said someone down the market told her it’s an epidemic or something, like, all over the world an’ that,” Zain announces at lunchtime. As usual, if there’s gossip to be had, it tends to be Zain that knows it. As far as Cory can tell, Zain never actually stops talking long enough to listen to anything, so how he comes by so much of it is anyone’s guess.

“Really?” Mo looks equal parts enthralled and horrified at the thought, but his question is purely for show - he hangs on Zain’s every word, most of the time. The third member of their group, Waqar, usually views his friend’s stories with a healthy dose of skepticism, and this time is no different. A single raised eyebrow from him is enough to tip Zain over into a defensive tirade, beginning with shouting at Waqar for implying Zain’s auntie is a liar.

Cory can’t help but laugh. In the entire time he’s known the three of them, he only hasn’t seen them as a trio a handful of times, and it’s usually Waqar who’s alone if anyone. By the time he sees them for rugby practice at the end of the day, they’ll be the best of friends again, which is handy because Zain is  _ loud _ when he’s defending himself and it can be quite distracting. So distracting, in fact, that Cory loses the thread of what he was about to say.

The first class after lunch is biology, and Louise gets it off to a good start by throwing up in the sink. Mr Hyatt sends her to the nurse with one of the other girls, then has to contend with a class of students who are suddenly placing a lot more trust in Zain’s gossip. 

“Look, it’s probably nothing to worry about,” he tells them. “It’s not unusual for there to be flu or a stomach bug going round at this time of year, is it?” That quietens everyone down a little bit as they think about it. 

Cory thinks about it too, because Mr Hyatt has a point. Surely it’s far more likely to be a bad bout of flu than a global pandemic? And, surely, it’s far more likely that Mr Hyatt knows more about this than Zain Younis?

“The best thing to do is just to take extra care. Wash your hands more often,” he shoots some of the boys a look, “and more thoroughly, and don’t share food and drinks. Perhaps even take the day off if you’re not feeling well!” 

“Sir, I’m feeling a bit peaky, actually!” Dan shouts out, looking decidedly not-peaky and earning him a look from Mr Hyatt.

“Really, it’s just a matter of looking after yourselves, and I’m sure this’ll all blow over in a week or two. Now, year twelve, do you think we could get on with our lesson?”

 

—-

 

Cory has the nightmare again that night, and wakes the next morning to find his alarm hasn’t gone off. He rushes through getting ready and doesn’t even bother with breakfast, but he still manages to avoid his dad, who he hears stumbling from his bedroom to the bathroom and being sick quite violently.

Riz texts him to let him know they’re already inside, having decided it’s too cold to hang around outside waiting for him any longer. By the time Cory arrives at school, it seems that most people have had the same idea, because the playground is almost empty. At least, that’s what Cory  _ thinks _ has happened, right up until he goes in through the front entrance and finds the place is eerily quiet. After checking with a couple of year eights that nothing has happened to draw everyone away, he sets off for the sixth form hub.

There’s an announcement at registration, which is missing another five people on top of the ones from yesterday, saying that the school will stay open today but that some lunchtime and after school activities might be cancelled, so everyone should listen out for tannoy announcements during the day. When no announcement is forthcoming, Riz and Cory head off to rugby practice, with Naveed deciding to do his homework in the library while he waits for them to finish.

They wait in awkward near-silence for ten minutes before agreeing that Mr Bell probably isn’t coming. Zain and Mo volunteer to go and look for a teacher, to make sure it’s okay for them all to leave. After they leave, no one speaks again for another few minutes. In the end, it’s Jake who breaks the silence.

“Maybe Mr Bell is sick, too.” 

Cory doesn’t really know what to think. He’d been laughing along with everyone else when Zain had been defending the epidemic theory, and he’d been suitably reassured by Mr Hyatt’s insistence that good hygiene would solve everything. Now, however, he can’t help thinking that maybe Zain was right. There were eleven people off sick from his class alone, and only half of the rugby team had made it to practice today. With Mr Bell seemingly unwell too, it makes for the worrying thought that perhaps they’ll all be next.

Zain and Mo return fairly quickly, having failed to find a member of staff anywhere nearby. Cory suggests they all go home, offering to take the blame if a teacher shows up after they’ve all gone. That seems to placate any concerns, and they all get changed and head out into the corridor.

“You guys as well, huh?” Cory turns at the sound of Chloe’s voice and sees her standing with Jordan and Razia just outside the isolation room. He gestures to the rest of the team.

“Uh, yeah. We waited but no one came.” 

No one says anything for a moment, until they hear the rattling of someone trying and failing to open one of the main doors. 

“It’s locked.” Waqar gives the door one last shove, but it doesn’t budge.

“Why would they lock us in?” Jordan asks as he walks down the corridor to the other entrance. He pulls hard on the door. “This one’s locked an’ all.”

Silence falls again, but it’s quickly interrupted by chaos as everyone tries to get the doors open.

“What’s going on?” It’s Naveed, accompanied by Alya. They’ve just come out of the library, having heard the commotion in the corridor. Cory approaches them and explains the situation, which only serves to deepen Naveed’s frown. “We were trying to look something up on the computer, but the internet was down. We tried using our phones but neither of us had a signal.”

Cory pulls out his phone to check and, sure enough, he doesn’t have a signal either. Dan and Jake have given up on getting the doors open, so he calls them over just to make sure it’s not just his network that’s down. They’re on a different network and also have no signal. 

Cory sighs. At this rate, the others will smash the doors to get out, and then it’ll turn out just to have been a mistake that they got locked in and they’ll all get detention for the rest of term, or thrown off the rugby team, or something equally unpleasant. At the very least, he feels he should do something to calm them down. He dashes back to the changing room, to where he remembers seeing a whistle hanging on a hook, then comes back to the corridor and climbs up onto a chair. He blows the whistle as loud as he can, and everyone falls silent, turning to look at him.

“Listen, we’re clearly not going to get the doors open like that, so we need to think of another plan.”

“Where is everyone? Where did all the teachers go?” Alya asks. 

“Me, Jordan and Chloe were in isolation last lesson.” The people around Razia spread out a bit to look at her while she speaks. “Mr Hyatt said that even if the bell went we couldn’t go until he came and told us, but then he never came back.”

“Miss Keane never arrived for drama club,” a younger voice pipes up from the back. Cory had been facing Razia and Alya, and hadn’t noticed the remnants of the junior drama club arriving at the other side of the group. He waits to see if anyone else will speak, but no one does, except for Mo.

“Are they all sick? Maybe Zain’s auntie was right after all…” He suddenly seems so small, so young and afraid, and Cory knows he needs to do something, but he isn’t sure what. Thankfully, Chloe comes to the rescue.

“Well, I’m sure my mum said something about a song that was on the radio in the staff room. Maybe we can go there and find it? I’m sure if it’s that serious, there’ll be an announcement, or it’ll be on the news or something.”

There’s a general buzz of agreement, so Cory climbs down from the chair to lead the group to the staff room. Sure enough, there’s a small battery-operated radio on the counter next to the coffee machine, so Cory brings it over to the table in the centre as everyone gathers round to listen. It takes a bit of tuning to find anything, and he tries not to think too much about what that means as Waqar takes over and finds a station that’s still broadcasting. Cory blows the whistle as the looping announcement starts again.

_ “...as the virus spreads across the north of England. Estimates in some areas are as high as 90% of citizens infected and killed within the last 24 hours. The early symptoms of the virus include a rash - most commonly beginning on the arms and chest - and a sore throat, a headache and vomiting. Everyone who remains uninfected should stay in a safe place and should not attempt to go outside until medical experts are able to determine the length of time the virus remains active.” _  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“See, didn’t I tell you?” Zain says to the group, before turning to Mo for backup. Mo surprises even himself by rather uncharacteristically bursting into tears, which earns him a sharp elbow to the side from Zain. Waqar pulls Mo to his side and shushes him gently. 

It all rather unnerves Cory. He’d been so willing to believe it couldn’t be this serious, and now it’s almost certain that all of their families are dead. Even worse than that, there probably isn’t anyone coming to the rescue, at least not any time soon. Twenty-eight teenagers with nowhere to go, and most of them wouldn’t know where to even start planning what to do next. He’s pulled from his thoughts by Alya.

“Maybe we should try to get home, to Mum and Dad.” She’s talking to Riz, who shakes his head.

“The man on the radio said to stay inside!” Razia objects loudly, and a chorus of agreement follows from the drama kids. Alya squares up to her.

“But I want to go  _ home. _ ”

Suddenly, everyone has an opinion that they want to voice as loudly as humanly possible. There’s so much shouting that Cory has to step out into the corridor just to hear himself think, so that he can come up with a plan.

Assuming the worst, he thinks, they’re on their own for at least the next few weeks, until they’ve given the virus time to die off. The radio announcement said to stay inside, and Cory agrees with that idea. If they all stayed in this building, they could defend it from any infected people who might come along. He goes back into the staff room and climbs onto a chair again, blowing the whistle to stop the shouting.

“The best thing to do would be to stay here. Someone’ll come for us,” he tells them, knowing it’s unlikely, “and in the meantime, we should stick together so we can protect each other. You can go if you want, but I’m staying put.”

He gives them a moment to digest his words. There’s a lot of whispering as they discuss it amongst themselves. Zain responds first.

“I’m staying too.” Mo looks at him, then at Waqar, and finally at Cory.

“And me. I’m not going out there; it’s not safe.”

More discussion follows, with everyone else agreeing to stay as well. Even Alya reluctantly agrees, when she realises her only alternative is going outside alone. Naveed stands and moves over to Cory.

“If we’re staying here, we need a plan. We need food, and water, and somewhere to sleep.” Cory is grateful for the input - he doesn’t mind rallying the troops, but he doesn’t feel strategy is his strong point. He’s more than happy for Naveed to handle some of the planning, but as he’s about to explain that they’re interrupted.

“Who put you in charge?” Jake shouts over to Naveed with a scowl. Cory knows exactly what’s going on. The whole time he’s known Jake, he’s dealt with the way Jake’s insecurities tend to come out as defensive, snarky comments. There’s never any real malice behind them, and if Cory is nice to him in response he tends to soften almost immediately.

“Hey,” he says quietly as he approaches Jake. “I know this is scary, but you can’t take it out on Naveed. He’s only trying to help, and-“

“I’m not scared!” Jake replies, louder this time. Cory knows him well enough to hear the undertone of fear in his voice, but it’s subtle enough that no one else notices. “I just don’t see why you always get to be in charge of everything.”

Ah. Cory had been captain of the football team every year at their old school, and then they’d made him co-captain of the rugby team with Riz. Arguably, Jake was just as good as Cory when it came to football and maybe letting them take turn about each year would have been a better option, but that’s not how things had turned out. The rugby team had been the final straw, because Jake had  _ definitely _ been better and Cory was sure he’d only been made captain for political reasons, or because Mr Bell felt sorry for him and Jordan.

Cory knows he hasn’t been a great friend lately, either. With all that’s been going on, with his dad, and the food situation, and Jordan, he’s been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hasn’t really been good company. Dan and Neil seem not to have minded too much, but Jake takes things quite personally and he’s probably a bit annoyed with Cory. He’s about to apologise when Naveed joins them.

“Why don’t we have a vote? That way we can all have a say about who’s going to be in charge.” It’s a sensible idea, and one Cory is sure Naveed is only suggesting because Cory will have the popular vote and win with ease. Trouble is, he’s sure Jake will know that too.

“That’s not fair.” Jake folds his arms, and Dan appears beside him with a look that says he agrees. “How about a competition? That way I have an equal chance to win.”

It’s not ideal, but Cory still feels confident he can win. They’re evenly matched on intellect, if Cory really puts his mind to it, and he’s got a clear advantage on strength. Even if they let a neutral third party decide on the nature of the competition, he has a clear shot. He agrees, and it’s decided that Zain, Mo and Waqar are neutral enough - and imaginative enough - to come up with some challenges. In the meantime, he herds everyone down to the assembly hall to keep them all in one place.

  
  


 

  
  


A little over an hour later, they all gather round to start the competition. Cory hands the whistle over to Mo so he can start and end the rounds, and Waqar has acquired a clipboard for score keeping. Zain, of course, is revelling in his role as the presenter, really getting the crowd riled up. Cory suddenly hopes he doesn’t win, if only so it isn’t his job to calm them all back down again afterwards.

Zain introduces both of them, and they stand opposite each other. Then Zain asks for two girls to volunteer, so Razia and Chloe stand. He asks for each of them to stand next to one of the competitors, and Cory ends up with Razia. It’s only then that Zain explains the challenge - lift the girl over your head and hold her there for as long as possible. Any strength disadvantage Jake may have had is now balanced out by the fact that Chloe is tiny. Sure enough, Jake wins.. 

The second challenge is an eating contest, and both Alya and Naveed protest loudly about wasting food, but Jake makes the case that a few packets of crisps wouldn’t make a difference and they eventually give in. Cory starts to wonder if he’s actually in with as much of a chance of winning as he’d previously thought. After all, Jake didn’t get to be so incredibly tall without a lot of fuel. However, now that he knows they’re going to be eating crisps, Cory just might have a plan.

He eats his first two packs a little bit slower than Jake, letting him get a good way through his third before putting his plan into action. Cory takes his remaining two packs and smashes them to dust, which lets him more or less just pour them straight down his throat. He finishes his fourth and final pack just as Jake is starting on his.

Round three is a race, which again seems like a fair fight. Cory is fast, but Jake has ridiculously long legs. It’s likely that Zain and Mo have thought of most of the actual challenges, but then Waqar, ever the voice of reason, had managed to make them fair. He makes a mental note to be very annoyed with Waqar if he ends up losing because of it, but to shake his hand for smoothing things over if he wins. Jake losing fair and square in a competition he had every chance of winning will go down a lot better than Jake losing when he was already at a disadvantage.  Cory wins the race by mere seconds, and by now the crowd are definitely on his side. It seems to be making Jake angry, and Dan has to talk him down before the final round. 

The last challenge is to do a headstand and hold it. Ordinarily, Jake would win this one by a mile, although he’s sure Waqar doesn’t know about Jake’s yoga abilities or he would never have chosen it. But now, with Jake unfocused and unsteady, Cory might just be in with a shot.  He’s been upside down for about ten seconds when he sees Jake starting to wobble out of the corner of his eyes. It sounds like the whole crowd is chanting Cory’s name, and then there’s a roar as Jake falls and Zain declares Cory the winner. He finds himself being dragged to his feet and surrounded, and it takes Riz pushing everyone aside to get him free. Zain presents him with a chair to stand on.

“What are we going to do now, chief?” Zain asks him, but Cory is too busy looking at Jake to answer. He’s at the back of the crowd, looking very hurt, and Dan’s efforts to cheer him up seem to be in vain.

Cory feels awful. Jake has always been sensitive, but Cory hadn’t thought that he’d take losing as badly as this. He must have known it would be tough to win, and Cory isn’t even sure why he felt the need to challenge for leadership in the first place, but now he’s really upset about losing. Cory resolves to give him some time to calm down, and then discuss it man-to-man. He thinks perhaps that there’s a lot of fear behind Jake’s actions, and he needs some time to figure out what to say to help.

“We need to make a plan,” Alya calls out before Cory can answer Zain’s question. She’s right, of course, as was Naveed when he said it earlier, but it’s hard to know where to begin. Firstly, though, Cory needs to deal with the fact that while a few people are backing Alya up, most are shouting at her to tell her she’s being boring.

“We do, but it doesn’t have to be done right away. We could...“ Cory begins, but trails off when he sees Jordan standing beneath him.

“It does though, doesn’t it? The problem isn’t going to be made any easier if we wait to deal with it.” 

Torn between the sensible idea of getting organised, and the need to keep the rest of the group onside, Cory says that they’ll deal with the plan tomorrow, and for now they can just try to relax. He sets clear boundaries on where they can go in the building, makes a rule about not going anywhere alone, and sets a meeting for ten o’clock the next morning to discuss things. Zain returns the whistle to him and declares it the marker of the chief. 

 

 

 

 

Cory sits on the edge of the stage to take it all in and digest the events of the day so far. Although he’s given them the night to relax, he’s already planning things out himself as far as he can. He looks at who he has to work with and what they might contribute. 

Alya may be a good second-in command. She’s organised and very good at taking charge. If she was more popular, she’d probably have been a better choice for the overall leader. As it stands, she can probably be in charge of organising food and supplies. Riz and Naveed could help her, as Riz’s sense of fairness would balance out Alya’s ruthlessness, and Naveed could be the voice of reason to mediate in any arguments. Cory sees Jordan sitting with them now, listening intently to Alya, and thinks it’s probably a good idea to include him in that group. It’s not like him to get so involved in the sensible side of things, but if that’s what he needs to get through this then Cory isn’t going to stand in his way.

Dan, Jake, and also Zain, Mo and Waqar, would probably be best on defence. The upside to being stuck here with the remnants of the rugby team is that they’ve definitely got the muscle to defend the place. Perhaps he’ll task Jake with teaching the year eights to fight, to give him something important to do and to keep the kids out of trouble. He’ll have to get Razia and Chloe to help keep them in order, and he doesn’t really want them to feel like babysitters, but it has to be done.

He’s eventually roused from his thoughts by Naveed calling his name from the doorway and holding up a skateboard. It turns out a few of them have been looking for things to do and the skateboard was in the cupboard of things that have been confiscated. Naveed turns out to be a natural at it, and they make a pact to go ice skating when this is all over.

When everyone finally settles down for the night, Cory finds himself shivering, but someone lays a blanket over him and he soon warms up. The light of the sunrise wakes him, and he sees that the “blanket” is in fact Riz’s coat. He smiles to himself, hopeful that this is the start of a good cooperative effort to get through this situation together.

**Author's Note:**

> The radio announcement is copied direction from the show, because I'm cool like that.


End file.
